Someone has built a wooden hut on the stump of what was once an enormous tree. The massive roots of the tree thrust up from the mire like the legs of a gigantic spider. They are decorated with hanging charms of black birds' feathers and what looks like dried entrails.
An open doorway is visible on one side of the hut, beneath which rests a massive dragon's skull, hollowed out and flipped upside down. Flanking the doorway are two iron cages that dangle like gruesome ornaments from the eaves. Scores of ravens are trapped in each one, packed so tightly they can barely move within. They squawk and struggle with excitement as you approach
Inside each cage is a swarm of ravens that will attack Baba Lysaga, her witches, and her scarecrows if released. Each cage is shut with an
arcane lock, and opening it requires a
knock spell, a successful DC 20 Strength check, or a successful DC 20 check with Thieves' Tools.
Baba Lysaga is inside her hut unless she has been drawn out.
Dragon's Skull
The upside down skull in front of Baba Lysaga's hut is the skull of
Argynvost, which Baba Lysaga took after the dragon's defeat at Strahd's hands. When it isn't in use, it rests in the mud and filth, and she uses a
prestidigitation spell to clean it when she needs it. It has a flying speed of 40 feet, and can only be controlled by Baba Lysaga. It is big enough to hold one Medium creature, which gains three-quarters cover while inside it. It h15 AC, 50 hit points, and immunity to poison and psychic damage. If the skull is destroyed, the beacon in
Argynvostholt cannot be lit.
Hut Interior
The hut is fifteen feet on a side and packed with old furniture, including a wooden cot, a wicker cabinet, a slender wardrobe, a wooden table, a stool, a barrel-topped wooden chest reinforced with brass bands, and an iron tub. In the middle of the room is a wooden crib with a sleeping infant inside. All furnishings except the crib are bolted to the floor. Beneath the crib, green ligt seeps up through the crack beneath the rotting floorboards.
If Baba Lysaga is present. A thin old woman with hair piled high on top of her head in an elaborate headpiece sits by the crib, one hand resting possessively on its edge. Her other hand grips a quarterstaff carved with gruesome images and scored with the scars of many attacks.
The child is an infant that was given to the witches at Mistwatch Mill as payment for a pie. They had no need for a child this small, so Baba Lysaga took him in to raise him as a witch. She doesn't know the child's original name, and calls him Jiro.
Beneath the hut's rotting floorboards is a 3-foot-deep cavity containing one of the gems Baba Lysaga stole from
The Wizard of the Wines vineyard. This gem animates the hut, and calms the infant Jiro to keep him from crying. The floorboards can be ripped up or smashed with a successful DC 14 Strength check, and can be broken by dealing 10 damage to the wood. The hut doesn't give the gem up easily. If the gem is removed or destroyed, the hut becomes incapacitated.
The wardrobe contains robes and assorted spell components. In the tub, she bathes herself and the baby Jiro in a slurry of blood, magic components, and filthy water. If the characters approach the hut at an appropriate time without being notice, they may witness this.
Treasure
The wooden chest is protected by a
glyph of warding that requires a successful DC 17 Intelligence check to find. The glyph deals 5d8 thunder damage when triggered. Opening the lid releases four
crawling claws that fight until destroyed.
Contained in the chest is:
- 1,300 gp
- Five 500 gp gemstones
- A vial containing oil of sharpness
- Two spell scrolls (mass cure wounds and revivify)
- A set of pipes of haunting
- A stone of good luck
- If the Fortunes of Ravenloft state a treasure is here, it is in this chest
The Creeping Hut
Although Baba Lysaga built this hut years ago, after the destruction of Berez, it wasn't until she embedded the magic gemstone from the Wizard of the Wines that it was embued with life. When she wills it to do so, or if it comes under attack, the hut will pull the roots of the tree from the ground and shamble around like a spidery behemoth, shaking the earth with every step. The hut attacks with its roots, and can also use them to throw large rocks.
If a creature smashes the floorboards of the hut in an attempt to take the gem while the hut is still alive, the cavity sprouts rotting wooden teeth and becomes a mouth that bites anything that tries to remove the gem. A creature trying to remove the gem must make a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw, claiming the gem on a successful save and taking 10 (3d6) piercing damage on a failure.
